New Year's Eve on the Seashore

Day #5, Saturday December 31, 2011, New Year’s Eve

            We are a day behind, officially, according to our itinerary.  We were supposed to hit Apollonia yesterday but we didn’t make it.  Oh well.  The shower has hot water so that is good but the water is coming out of a wand which I didn’t bother to check the position before I turned on the water so was hit full in the face with cold water first thing.  Brrrr.  My daughter ended up with the same problem.   Here is her take on the hotel:

“I also had the same problem. I ended up getting water all over the bathroom because the wand wasn’t positioned correctly. I had actually looked to check that the shower head was positioned correctly and figured it would come out of there but the water came out of both – hence the water everywhere. This hotel was also newly renovated – it was the first time our guide was staying at it after the re-work. None of us were impressed. It was styled as modern art type which made it a bit sterile and cold. Thus, with surly staff and lack of service, it was the worst hotel we stayed at. They also kept their poor German Shepard chained down in the parking lot. He did not look happy. During breakfast, the server – who didn’t really serve anything, pretty much just stood behind us and watched us the entire time while her (or some other staff)’s kids watched cartoons on the TV.”

My husband & I got up in our 18C room, never got warmer than that, about 64F., and went downstairs to breakfast.  It didn’t look very promising but a lady motioned us into the restaurant where there was a table set with the “buffet”.  We sat down to see if we would be served coffee but the lady disappeared.  We went to the buffet table.  There were 2 cooked eggs on a plate (they knew there were three of us there), and the eggs were cold.  There were a couple of hard boiled eggs, there wasn’t much fruit or vegetables, no yoghurt, and I think there was no coffee and not much in the way of bread or pastries either.  Probably the worst breakfast we had at any hotel on the tour. (OH, except for New Year’s Day).  That plus the surliness of the front desk and their unwillingness to change our room and the fact that it is supposedly a 4 star hotel and we had to park two floors below the hotel and carry our bags out to the car this morning.  I went downstairs to see if I could find an exit to the car park but there wasn’t one.  Poo.  I wandered around the kitchen area and electrical area and laundry area but nothing for guests to get to the parking lot.  So we weren’t very happy with this hotel.  My review on Trip Advisor reflects this all. 

            We were downstairs ready to go at 10 which is the time Klodi gave us.  At 10:15, I called his number and he obviously was still in bed.  He was quite startled and said he’d be right down.  It still took him another 15 minutes to make it to the lobby.

            We haul out with our suitcases but I was lucky and Klodi took mine down the stairs.  Into the van.  Our daughter has relinquished the front seat to me so I can take photos but she and I are both taking Bonine to make sure we are ok on the curves and swerves.  So we are finally off to Apollonia this morning on a hill top and take some photos of some cemeteries as we pass and also some of the bears hung in houses being built to ward off evil spirits.  Usually these bears or dogs are hanging from the rooftop or hanging from an aerial.

            I am worried that I do not have a good turkey photo yet so I told Klodi that if we see a bunch of turkeys, we have to stop so he can hold one for me so I can get a photo.  So that is what we did.  We passed a flock of about 8 turkeys with an older man and a stick.  We stopped and Klodi went back to talk to him.  I don’t think he ever told him that he was doing it so I could take a photo but told him that he was interested in buying one for dinner.  I am out of the car and walking towards him because I expected him to wave me in but as usual, all the Muslim men ignored me so I just kept walking closer and closer and then Klodi is running after turkeys trying to catch one.  They are very adept at running and gobbling just a few steps to stay out of the way.  Another man in a red jacket joins the chase and he is the one that finally runs a turkey down and tackles him!  I think the red jacket man was another turkey owner and just was having fun tackling the turkey.  I wonder if all buyers have to catch their own?   Klodi takes it from him and I am snapping photos  and there is a lot of positioning by the turkey as it flaps it wings and wiggles and tries to escape but Klodi finally has him by the feet and is holding him upside down.  He is still talking to the man and I am taking photos then ask if I can hold him.   He’s one heavy bird.  Klodi talks some more and puts him down and we leave.  Later he said that the bird was 700 lek per kilogram and we worked it out to about $60.  He also said that he told the man he would think about it and when we came back by maybe he would get it.  Of course he had no intention and when we did drive back by, he tried to go fast through the area but our van is a rather distinct Mercedes Benz red with foreigners in it so the turkey owner recognized us and tried to flag Klodi but he ignored him and drove faster.  I’ll bet that old man remembers Klodi or at least the red van next time he comes through with some other tourists.   

            We pass some of the omnipresent bunkers but these are quite large ones. Most have graffiti on them include the biggest one that says Hi Mom.  Now we are on smaller roads and there are several donkey carts that pass us and a horse cart.  Always some sheep in the road almost every day as well.  Sometimes cows as well. 

            Apollonia is a huge site but like most in Albania, not a lot of excavation has been done.  At least this place is much better than Durres in that they could do a lot of excavation.  High on a hill top and no modern village or town built on top of it.  There is a large façade of a former building which might have been a Prytaneion – basically a place where the leaders of the local government met.  Also a couple of Stoas or ancient streets that were straight as a rod.  There was a library and an Odeon, some baths, some noble’s house and that’s about all we got from Klodi that I recall.  We did pick up the brochure and there is a lot more information about the rocks and walls and ruins than what we got and also must have been some more in other places as well.  Looking at the map of the site, we only covered a very small portion of it but also looks like we would have been hiking over quite a distance to see the other ruins and possibly would have taken too long.  

            We walk into the former church/monastery which is a museum.  There is a monk standing looking over the valley below and the wind is blowing his robes.  I snapped a photo but didn’t really get it into good focus.  There were statues around the courtyard, all without heads which are in museums elsewhere.  The church was lovely but the columns along the front of the church (a covered walkway between the columns and the church entrance) were Byzantine and  was more interesting as they had faces on the tops of the columns on both sides.  The faces were called  “frippery” by our guide meaning a lot of decoration and silliness for no reason.  I liked the faces and each one was different so I took a photo of each.

            I was allowed to take photos in this church.  It didn’t have near the fancy decorations or icons of the other churches but it was small and nice.  At one time there were frescoes on the walls but they have been scrapped off or painted over and are gone except for a small blue one on the wall and a bit on the top of the dome.  A double eagle is on a carved stone set up near the roof on the outside and some writing in Greek which is very strange for the time period.  We went into another little church that had a lot of damage done to it and the frescoes were in very bad shape. 

            We are now heading down the coast to Sarande which is a resort town and we will spend two nights there.  Klodi has started warning us that things will probably be closed on the 1st.  He also says thought that it is good we are out of Tirana because the celebration there goes on all night and you can’t even see outside at night because of all the fireworks smoke.  There have been fireworks every night and often during the day as well as people set off bottle rockets and such just for fun.  We are now noticing a lot of fireworks for sale along the road and everyone has some for sale.

            The itinerary read that we would stop at Ali Pasha’s castle in Porto Palermo.  As we are coming down one hill, we see it in the distance.  It is on a small island that looks like it might have a causeway.  According to my very old guide book, it said you could visit this castle and there was no entrance fee.  According to Klodi, it is closed and all we could do was stop for less than 5 minutes and take a photo.  We would have learned a lot more about Ali Pasha had we been able to visit Butrint but since we couldn’t; he fades into the background of our knowledge.  He did undertake a lot of building in Albania and we did see some of his stuff but you can take an “ali pasha tour” to see his works and buildings and aqueducts and castles.

            We are almost to Saranda when we drive up a steep hill to the Lekuresi Fortress that overlooks the bay and the island of Corfu.  This is when we first realized that we were so close to Greece.  I never remember what is in the itinerary!  Lekuresi was waiting for us and had our lunch ready.  We did not get to choose the menu as they are giving us some traditional food things .  It actually had  looked like they were totally closed but they were getting ready for their New Year’s Eve party.  Still, they had food for us and it was good and they didn’t mind cooking  our daughter’s vegetables. 

            Some things we have learned.  So far, only Tirana (with one exception) has any stoplights and those are questionable at best since there are traffic cops messing up the works everywhere.  In Vlore, we saw cops with guns who were searching a car and the people in it.  Skanderbeg’s flag is the flag of Albania which is a double eagle.  Mostly men are the shopkeepers, a lot like Turkey and if they aren’t shop keeping, they are sitting around in cafes and coffee bars drinking Raki, or coffee, and chatting with each other.  The women don’t chat on the streets but hurry from one errand to another and then go home. Also in Vlore, we saw a salesman whose trunk was totally full of mandarin oranges.  Where the seas join in Vlore, there was a secret submarine base but wasn’t quite as secret or prohibited as the one in Balaclava in Ukraine.  Dhermi was a village totally on the side of a cliff with one church and one mosque.  Vuno was a village with one stoplight. 

           

            We are at the Hotel Butrinti which is 5*.  As we walk into the hotel, only one person at the desk speaks English.  The lobby is full of tables and chairs with nuts in dishes on each table and huge speakers on either side of the entrance and a Christmas tree that has been pushed back to almost blocking the elevator.  Our guide told us that no one eats dinner before 10 and especially not on NYE.  We didn’t want to wait that long but he said no one would be ready before then.  We finally compromised on 9.

            We ask for the quietest rooms we can get.  Pretty sure we are almost the only ones in the hotel again, maybe one or two other guests.  They do tell us the party downstairs will not start until midnight.  Great.  Pretty sure we will get no sleep this evening.  There are two sets of 5 speakers stacked on top of each other  in the lobby and they reach to the ceiling.  Of course, we end up in rooms right over the speakers.  We ask for rooms at least on the other side of the hallway and are told that would be worse because there is a club back there and they will stay open all night and be much more noisy.  We do have a great view out of window though of the city which has a promenade around the waterfront.  There is also a view of Corfu, the Greek island, right across the water from us.  There is a daily ferry to Corfu.  While in the room, the lights are flickering several times and the TV would go out and the lights would go out.  Then the lights would come back on because the hotel had a generator which ran the lights but pretty much nothing else.  This happened several times but the lights and TV would always eventually come back.  This was of great concern too because we didn’t want to spend another night with no heat and then no hot water later.  We later heard it was because too many people were busy cooking their fancy dinners and such and once that peak passed, the power stayed on ok.  We did take the stairs down when we left for dinner.

            We get to the fruit stand before it closes and stock up for tomorrow.  I get some sunset shots of Corfu.  We get ready to go out at 9 for dinner.  Our guide comes to get us but we are not driving, just walking down the street to the restaurant.  When we get there, a few people are already there for dinner as well and some more come in so people do eat earlier than 10.  There is a man tuning up his clarinet with a speaker.  Have never seen a wind instrument with a speaker attachment before. 

            The meal is a set menu and several courses.  We get starters of  some fried little seafood bits which included octopus and squid but some tasty tiny shrimp.  And I’ve totally lost what else we had but it took a long time to get the food and a long time between courses.  By now, the musicians have started playing music which sounds a lot like Greek and the largest party there starts dancing which is a lot like Greek, 6 steps around in a circle.  I am not a late night person so didn’t last much  longer but headed back to the hotel where I could read and get into my pajamas and enjoy the rest of the night.

            We were reading and watching TV at midnight when we heard fireworks and looked out. It was beautiful because there were fireworks going off all over the city so we could see the outlines of the town and the buildings and then bright colored fireworks over many of the buildings.  It lasted a good long time.  It was beautiful because the bay was in a crescent shape so we could see  the fireworks in a long line following this crescent shape of the city.  People were shooting them off in so many locations that at times, the whole city across the bay would be lit with colored fireworks.  There were people shooting them next to our hotel as well so we had fireworks in front of us and firewooks to the side of us.  Cast a few glows on the water and made everything look like fairytale land. 

           

Good Day in Berat, then Cold and Hungry in Fier

Cold and Hungry in Fier Day #4 Friday December 30, 2012 A very cold morning greets us when we wake and there is no way any of us are taking showers as we have no hot water and our daughter is smart enough not to get cold and wet in her bathroom. She put her clothes on the heater before she put them on and I put my clothes in front of the heater before I put them on me. So we dress quickly. My hubby & I go to the lobby and into the restaurant for breakfast. There is a group of 10 men or so with coffee and smoking. One woman is seated with them and she never looks up and never joins the conversation. I don’t think she smokes either. The breakfast isn’t bad, just not wonderful either. Can’t even remember now what we had. The group of men at the table look over at us occasionally and stare but when I smile, they smile back. They finally leave and the smokiness clears a tiny bit.

We go back to our room and haul out our bags. Our guide had not stayed in this hotel last night as he has friends in town. As we are checking out, the management is very apologetic for the power outage and no heat and no hot water. There are three bottles of wine sitting on the counter and I think, “I’ll bet he is going to give those to us” and I was right. At the end of his apology, he offers us the wine for the inconvenience. They also gave our daughter an energy drink since she had not stayed to have any breakfast. We carried it with us for a few days and tasted it later, possibly in Sarande and while it might have been a beneficially drink health wise, it was pretty nasty flavor wise. Anyway, this was a delightful little hotel and would have been quite nice with heat and hot water. But the management had tried so hard to get us warm and was so sorry they had the problem and gave us the wine that we really felt it was a good stay.

      We make a photo stop on the way to the castle so I can take photos of the old Orthodox part of the city across the river. I can also see an old citadel tower above me on the cliff. I am trying to get photos of cemeteries when we pass. Unfortunately many of them are not coming out because of the speed with which Klodi drives, which means as fast as he can most of the time. The cemeteries are colorful with photos on a good many of the head stones etched into the headstone with the new methods that are current these days. Most of the photos look exactly like a good Polaroid would look, I think. The cemeteries also have a lot of elaborate headstones in them and crypts that appear to be half buried. Cemeteries are always interesting.

       We are back up to the castle/citadel this morning. In its heyday, there were 40 churches and two mosques inside the walls. Now most of them are in disuse or dilapidated. The UNESCO money is apparent though as we have to pick our way past workmen in many of the alleyways and streets and sidewalks. Some of the churches are being given overhauls as well. They are all busy getting ready for the tourist season coming this year.

        Entering the citadel through the same arch, we pass by the restaurant where we ate last night. We all wave to each other and say hi like old friends. Klodi starts his narrative as he walks us around the citadel. On the wall outside of the restaurant is a plastic bag full of aluminum cans. As there are more along the way and sometimes bags with garbage hanging outside of a house, we think it is their recycling pick up point or their garbage bin that hangs rather than puts stuff in a bin.

      We are walking through the citadel on ancient streets of cobblestones – well, the streets are ancient but the cobblestones have probably been replaced a number of times. Most of the city is either uphill or downhill too. Nothing much on flat ground. Our guide is naming all of the churches as we pass so I was able to label the photos with the proper names. Hopefully I spelled most of them correctly.

       We are going into one of the churches to see the altar and the icons. Of course, it is a place where I am not allowed to take photos. I would have loved to break this rule but as a matter of course, I try not to break the rules in churches/temples/mosques, etc. and have sometimes been lucky enough to be allowed to take photos. This church had a beautiful wood panel across the front of the church with icons. One of their famous icon painters was Onufri who was called Onufri the Red because he used a lot of red paints in his icons. He also painted a Madonna with child where the child was on the left and that is unusual. Our daughter commented on the single seated pews being around the sides of the church and sat in one to see how comfortable it was. We speculated on which seat would be the best to sit in and fall asleep because you couldn’t be seen by the monks. I did take a photo of her sitting on the pew. Think it shows how sleepy we were as that was the first thought that came to mind – which seats would be best to take a nap!

      Our guide clued us into how to tell what the church was called by looking at the icon in the second panel on the left of the altar door. It helps to know your Bible stories too so you can recognize what is painted and therefore know what the church is called. We don’t so we never could guess at any of the churches but at least we knew where to look. We were able to go behind the front wooden panels into the altar room in this church because it isn’t a working church anymore. There were frescoes on the walls behind the altar at one time but they have pretty much been destroyed. The church we visited was St. Mary’s Sleep because the icon with the church name was a painting of St. Mary sleeping.

      Continuing our journey around the citadel inside the walls, we pass through an alley where some lovely yellow flowers are blooming on a bush to the right and a great view of the valley ahead of us and some birds swarming on a wire to the left. Both my daughter and my husband had to tell me to stop and take photos as I was busy trying not to fall on the cobblestones. Nice having directors with me so I don’t miss any shots. I do appreciate the help although sometimes I have no idea what my hubby is talking about when he says “take a photo” and I haven’t spotted whatever awe-inspiring view he has seen already.

      We curve around various churches and streets and alleyways through all these stone buildings and wind our way down past two churches where there is a large bust of Constantine in the square and two churches beside him, St. Constantine and St Helena, I think. I am behind at this point snapping photos of the vistas before me so didn’t get the entire explanation of these churches and the huge bust. Continuing down the cobblestones and step walkways, we reach the bottom tier of the citadel and there are several dozen workmen repairing the sidewalks and putting in new stone/brick walkways. We had to wander off the path and through the mud to get past them. We have a fine view of the entire valley before us and the Orthodox side of Berat. Almost directly down from us is the Muslim side and Klodi points out the Bachelors Mosque which we’d walked by last night and also a Harem but in the dark, we didn’t get much feel for it. Almost directly below us at one point is St. Michael’s church. Not sure how people got to that church.

       Of course, every down has an up and now we climb up the steps to St. Trioda’s church which has been restored but we can’t get into it. There was actually a small souvenir stand outside the church and a small coffee shop as well. We passed back through a gate and wall and on the left, there was the white mosque which has been grafatti’d. There isn’t much to it now.

In 1997, when our guide was a teenager, there was a pyramid scheme going around the country which the government told people was a really good thing and a good way to invest their money. Many, many people put their life savings into this scheme and when it collapsed, they lost all their money and basically the government said, Oh, that’s sad but hey, what can we do? Nothing. People rioted and threw out the government and closed down the country for a couple of months. Guns were passed out to teenagers but for what purpose, who knows? Klodi says he had an AK 46 machine gun, a pistol, and a hand grenade and he was just a teenager. We didn’t ask what happened to the guns and grenade nor if he had used them or not.

      We pass the Red Mosque which has the remnants of a minaret and past a hotel that was a church, then a barracks, then a hotel and now seems to be nothing. A lovely climb down a path and rocks with a view of the main city below us where Klodi points out the Leaded Mosque, the King mosque and a big government building/conference center being built. When we overlooked the old Orthodox city, he pointed out the names of several of the churches within that complex. Also says he and his friends used to slide down the hill that was to our left. Looked like good place to run into a tree.

        And of course, once we are at the bottom of the hill, we have to turn around and go up because the way through to the parking lot is closed. We tried to take a short cut so we wouldn’t have to walk the complete city again but it was being worked on with water and cement and cobbles and rocks so we had to mince our way through the water and mud and we all got muddy shoes which pretty much wiped off with the grass but not totally.

      On the way out, we stopped at the restaurant’s toilet again. There was a statue to Onofri, the painter, in the square just as you entered the grounds. We paid our entry fee upon exit. Winding our way down the hill to the town and heading out again. We passed a large complex that is closed. It is a former communist factory. Think this one was textiles. Most of the windows are broken and there is little or no activity in the complex except for a couple of buildings that have been turned into something else. When communism fell in many countries, whole buildings and towns were abandoned almost overnight. Amazing it could happen so fast but it did here and in Armenia we saw it too.

       Going out of town now and on our way to Fier much later than we should have because of the stop this morning to see Berat Citadel. This is from our printed guide: “Berat, known as a ‘city of one thousand windows’, and has been declared a ‘museum city’ and UNESCO protected site. A highlight to any trip to Albania, Berat is one of the country’s most beautiful towns. The old name of the city was Antipatrea, built on the slopes of mountain Timori, with a castle dominating the city. Within the city walls there are houses and the Onufri Museum, where we see paintings by this outstanding painter from the 16th century as well as his son Nikolla. We will spend most of our time touring in the old part of the town (we didn’t do any!) This is perhaps one of the best-preserved Ottoman cities in the Balkans, with a lively lower town and a beautiful medieval citadel district on top of the hill. One of Berat’s highlights is a visit to the inhabited citadel. Once inside the walls, we can visit ruined mosques and several medieval Orthodox churches, still intact and with restored frescoes and icons. The famous Onufri museum is housed in a wonderful church and holds the best collection of Albanian icons. In the lower town, we will see the Leaded Mosque, so named for the roofing material, the Bachelor’s Mosque, the Sultan’s Mosque and the Ottoman han.” Well, didn’t get to see any of the mosques except for from above and sometimes wasn’t sure if I was looking at the right thing. Good thing about mosques, usually there’s a minaret so you can home in on that.

   
          We see a cloud front coming into town. It is a quite distinctive line where the cloud front meets the sky. We stop at Ardenica to visit an old monastery where Scanderbeg was married, supposedly. A lot of it had been destroyed but someone had some foresight to say, wait, this is where Scanderbeg was married so we can’t destroy the entire thing. There are still some monks living there. Also, Klodi challenged us to determine the name of the church. We knew where to look but we don’t know our stories so didn’t know what the picture meant. There was a great clock/bell tower on the outside and I could take a photo there. Sometimes the memory of a vacation is as much about the photos you didn’t get to take as it is about looking at the photos you did take.

       We took the tour out of order here and instead of heading for Apollonia, we went to Bylis for another archeological site. On our way, we pass through the small town of Blish or Blash or Bilash. Wasn’t sure which way it is spelled and not really sure of the pronunciation either. As we enter the town to drive through, there are several butcher shops on either side of the road from us. Each one has meat hanging from hooks on the outside of their shop for sale. Each one also has a cow or maybe a sheep or both or goat also by the shop. As we are driving slowly through, a man at one shop pulls a cow up to the shop slab of concrete and as we are watching, lifts a wooden mallet and swings it hard right onto his head. Another man blocked my view just as the first man swung the mallet so I didn’t see him hit the cow but I saw the cow go down and as we continued past, the cow was on its side with all four feet sticking straight out as if it were a stuffed animal. I think one of us, possibly me, said OMG, did he just kill that cow??? Well, heck, it is a butcher shop but I don’t want to see it. I think Klodi said something like stupid people don’t know how to kill a cow, he’s just stunned it. For some reason we are driving by really, really slowly, it seems. Think there was traffic. I saw that the man with a mallet was drawing back for another shot at the cow’s head so I looked away at that point. My daughter also looked away at the killing moment but she saw that it took the guy 3 times with the mallet to kill it and there was a group of about 4 men standing around “helping” and he still couldn’t kill it with one blow. Up until I saw the man with the mallet start to swing the first time, I had my camera up and ready to take photos but I don’t really want photos of this. Not a good investigative reporter am I. As we continue through the town, there are more men looking like they are about to pull up a cow and give it a good whack. Not cool. So we named this town the Killing Fields.

       Now on to Bylis. This was a site chosen by the ancient Illyrians which overlooked a river plain below. The river has since changed location and isn’t as deep so ships cannot come up as far as they used to do in those days. But the views from up here were great. I took a photo of each of the explanation signs so we would know what we were looking at as we went through the ruins. Quite an interesting place and actually had some stone walls and such rather than just markers to show what had been on the site at one time. There were sheep on the other side of a fence from the site. I’m always interested in watching them as well. We walked to the edge of the cliff and looked at the mountains across the valley. They are snow topped and the sun was shining rays on them from a hole in the clouds. Somewhere there was an old path that the women would have used to walk down the hill to the river and climb back up again. They probably went 3 or 4 times a day. I’m thinking it would take me all day for one trip and I’d get thirsty and drink most of the water!

         Then we walked back to the restaurant and insisted that we have some lunch. There were two other groups in the restaurant and one was sitting right in front of the fireplace and the other had a heater blowing on their table. Luckily, the fireplace seated group finished shortly and left and we moved over to their spot. Our daughter gives her vegetables to the kitchen to cook for her. They were happy to cook it but asked if she wanted everything cooked and she said yes. They brought it back with the leaves and stems of the cauliflower cooked as well and they actually tasted just as good as the white part of the cauliflower. We did say everything after all, expecting they would take off the leaves but guess they just chunked the whole thing into the water. We had chicken and rice, way too much chicken and rice.

      This place had three birdcages. One was a lovebird and one was a canary but not sure what the other was. They were all singers and while we were sitting there, they would sing and chirp. Wasn’t really sure it was them at first because they were so loud and noisy but finally decided it was. Almost like being in the Tiki Room at Disneyland!

          After eating, another trip to the toilet and then back down the mountain to Fier. Too late to do Apollonia today. We are running about half day behind on our visits to sites but doesn’t seem to be any reason to move faster or catch up at this point. We get to Fier and our hotel is on the main square. That’s fine except everywhere there are a lot of fireworks being shot off at all times of day because it is so close to New Years. And there is another carnival on the square. We get out of our van and the hotel whisks our bags up the two flights to stairs to the lobby of the hotel before we had hardly even exited. This was the only time we saw anyone working at the hotel besides the desk manager. We get into the lobby and they want our passports to make copies. Why is it only the 4 and 5 star hotels want to see our passports. All the smaller 3 star hotels are just fine with who we say we are most of the time. Plus there is no one else at the hotel. Did they expect a big rush on guests at the last minute? The clerk behind the counter is not very friendly and starts an argument with Klodi when he asks for Klodi’s passport which he doesn’t have but has his national identity card instead.

         Our bags are taken up to floor 4. Klodi is still waiting for a room. We get out of the elevator and it is totally dark on the floor and we don’t know which way to go. We are trying to pull out a flashlight when the lights come on. The manager or front desk person is there and has walked to the end of the hall to turn on the lights. We find out rooms and walk into a very cold room and turn on the heat. Our daughter’s room is directly on the square and she can hear the music quite loudly. We do what little unpacking we have and then decide to go out to get some fruit and such . We’re not feeling the need for a dinner since we ate lunch so late but maybe just some munchies. Klodi had insisted all the way into town that it would be easy to find restaurants and food just everywhere since we were on the main street.

        We needed food for later because we are not thinking we want to go out much later. It’s cold and we don’t have a guide right now and we are honestly NOT seeing anything along the street that looks like a market or a restaurant. So our daughter pops into the hotel to ask the man behind the desk where is a fruit stand. He pretends she isn’t there and then pretends (?) he doesn’t speak English. She comes back frustrated. We walk down the street a bit then head for a side street to see if we have any better luck. Our daughter’s suggestion as she is smart enough to realize we are not going to find a fruit shop on the main street. We find a small market and are able to get some things for dinner including a couple of the croissant type things that come filled with two types of crème or jelly. I love these.

        We make a bold move and ask when we check out if anyone speaks English. One man behind the counter says “a little” we ask for fruit and he is happy to know the answer and points us around the corner. We go around the corner and at first think he has sent us to a candy store with fruit candy like Haribo but we go a bit further and see some fruit bins in the street and are able to go and get most of the fruit we have been liking and some veggies as well. There were two stores next to each other. The first one didn’t have any lights outside so we went to the second one.

        On the way back to the hotel, we stop in to see if we can find me a sweater. I was needing some extra warmth. Any shops we see are filled with very tiny clothes where even our daughter who is a runner and very well proportioned and about a size 8 in the U.S. is a large or extra-large here. We tried one shop where she liked a shirt with skull and crossbones on it but their largest size was a bit too tight on her. They did try hard to find something she would like but no dice We did find another shop that had some cool sweaters. The one I liked the best was a large and would fit her a tiny bit big but wouldn’t have fit me at all. She did find a sweater that she liked and the salesman wanted to make sure she understood it was a man’s sweater. He was amused that she kept trying it on and then said something like everyone wears either kind of sweater. Didn’t much look like a man’s to either one of us but whatever. I actually found a hoodie there. Also a man’s hoodie and not one I would ever buy on my own because it isn’t very pretty but I was desperate for more warm clothes so I got it. We all felt it was a hoodie for advertising Communist China as it was covered with red stars.

         Back to the hotel and it is still very cold in the rooms. The heat is coming out of a vent and then disappearing back up into the intake vent which might be good for summer but it meant that the room wasn’t going to be much warmer. And it is still quite noisy. I call our guide and ask him if he can ask if we can change rooms to a quieter room away from the main square. We figure it shouldn’t be a problem because we seem to be the only guests. Klodi is on the third floor and we are on the fourth but I don’t think anyone else is here. He says he will go ask. Whether he really did or not, it is hard to say. As we are sitting in our rooms in the cold and getting a headache from the noise, our daughter went downstairs in about 20 minutes but our guide wasn’t at the front desk asking for a room change for us. About 10 minutes after that, he knocks on our door and says very sorry but they refuse to move us and say that the carnival will stop by about midnight. Of course it did not stop and went on all night long. Cuddle under the covers and try to warm up and do get some sleep. Gotta get an alarm clock that comes with a white noise generator!

Out and About in the Ruins & Bunkers & Turkeys

 Day 3 Thursday Dec 29, 2012
 Today we are moving to a new hotel tonight but we are starting to Durres which is a port city very close to Tirana. Many people in Tirana have summer homes down here or weekend homes. We saw that there was a train that goes between Durres and Tirana but our guide said most people do not use it as it takes 1 ½ hours to go the distance and you can drive it in ½ hour. I would imagine that you could only make that ½ hour drive if you are going in the middle of the night without traffic. Certainly took us more than ½ hour to get there and we are not in the middle of the summer beach season.

Durres is a large port town and was once the largest port on the Adriatic and during Albania’s struggle for independence, this port town led a fierce resistance and the men who died are regarded as martyrs and the first ones in the War of National Liberation. So Durres is still regarded as an important town of independence and freedom. As we are driving through the town, there are large congregations of men on a few street corners near where a ferry must dock. These are the local money changers and each one of them held a large stack of money in their hands. Some more freedom and independence right here!

 Durres has½ million people, on the coast, with Byzantium walls around the old part of the city that were built around 500-700 A.D. with the oldest known excavation dating around 600 BC by the Greeks. Unfortunately, they cannot excavate anything else because too much has been built on top of the ancient ruins. We are going to see the amphitheater which was used for gladiator fights only, the theater which was used for plays and musicals and part of the agora which was the shopping part of ancient towns. Odeon’s were half circle stages covered with a dome where literature and poems were staged. Durres does not have a Odeon that has been excavated that we saw. There wasn’t much left of the agora, just a few lines of foundation rock, a circle of floor stone and a dozen or so columns left standing. We are in the middle of a neighborhood with apartments and shops around us. The modern city is crowded right up to the fence protecting the ruins. I believe the modern city would be into the ruins except for the fence. Have to have a good imagination on this one. We could see there was nowhere left to excavate though because the ruins that are left are rather “ruined”

Next we drove to the amphitheater. It is in a bit better shape with a bit more to see as far as having more shape and slope to its sides. On the far side of the amphitheater from where we were looking was a small turkey flock. As it is almost New Year’s everyone is anxious to have their flocks out and about so they can be purchased. Someone was whistling to the turkeys and after each whistle, the turkeys would gobble. Whistle, gobble, whistle, gobble, whistle, gobble. Quite funny. My husband tried it but I think he was too far away. There is a small church in the amphitheater but it is under cover and we can’t see it. Some of the amphitheater stones are in the more recent ruins of shopkeepers stores and houses that are in the foreground of the amphitheater. And it wouldn’t surprise me if we went across the street and found some of the shopkeeper stones in the houses of today.

 Later we walk around parts of the old walls and look at the massive guard towers that jut into the park. Our guide asks me if we want to go to the beach for a coffee and snacks or if we want to go for a panorama view. I ask to do both and he says “of course, why not?” We drive up a hill with some switch backs and cobbled streets. We are passing concrete bunkers in the ground. Klodi says there are some 70,000 bunkers all throughout the country. We believe him and can usually see bunkers everywhere we go. These were built by the Germans during WWII and were kept in use during the Communist period. During the dictator’s reign, everyone had to do some training in a bunker. These bunkers come in all sizes from being set into the ground with just a viewhole above the ground to huge platoon sized bunkers in the middle of a field. Often I would look on the map to see why a bunker was placed where it was because it sure didn’t look to me like that area was in any danger of attack from across a border or river. Found out they were everywhere partially to avoid attack from above.

At the restaurant, we park, walk further up the hill then have to take an elevator up to the restaurant. We go outside for the view and it is magnificent. We can see across the Adriatic Sea, across the town, and if it had not been hazy, probably would have been able to see Tirana. There is a house in the trees close to the restaurant and it was the former house of the former king, King Zog. Don’t know anything about his time or reign and we never got any more information than that. There is a small carnival close to the waterfront with one of the cars that rocks back and forth getting higher with each rock until you are almost looking straight down at the height of the pendulum rock. We could see part of the port and several buildings are being constructed close to the seaside that looks to be apartments or condos. The sun is up and high enough to cast a golden sheen over part of the water. It makes a nice backdrop for a tanker going out to sea Klodi wants to get a cup of coffee and my husband is eager every time to join in so we sit outside in the sun and it’s pleasant enough. No need to drive down to the beach because the view from up here is superb. We finally finish and head off to Berat where we will spend the night and see the old town which is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

 Several things to see and note as we are traveling around the country. Turkey is the traditional dinner for New Year’s. But this is not a country where you get your turkeys in the grocery store but you pick one out of a flock and carry it home, live, and then do the deed yourself. I don’t think I could wring its neck as 1), the birds are huge and I think getting a grip on it would be doubtful; 2) I’d be pretty squeamish, 3) just not into killing animals. 4) I’d never get all the feathers off it. I want my meat on a tray, laid out and ready to cook and not looking like anything recognizable other than meat. But it is a hoot to see turkeys being carried in sacks, upside down, by the feet, under the arm, and transported by car, bicycle, donkey cart, bicycle cart, and walking. So I am always on the lookout for turkey photos.

 We notice a lot of unfinished houses as we travel too. Like many countries, they build when they can buy the supplies. Usually, the bottom floor is for their shop, business, car washing (there were MANY Lavazh or car washing places everywhere. No one should have been driving a dirty car), garage, and supplies. The order of the next floors built depended on the family I suppose. Some houses looked like they were being built from the top down and others from the bottom up. Throughout the country, we saw houses in all stages of construction from a slab being poured to roofs being tiled, walls going up, support columns poured, one floor finished, two floors finished, only the shop or garage finished, etc. Again, the youngest son stays with the parents and his wife comes into the home. Usually they take the top floor while the parents stay on the middle floor. It takes years to build a house like this as the materials are purchased piecemeal. You have an extra 10,000 lek one week so you buy a pallet of bricks. Maybe you don’t have any extra money for the next three months or whatever but you eventually get enough bricks to use them in a wall. And so it goes. There doesn’t seem to be any zoning either as it appears you can put anything you want on the bottom floor next to a house that maybe isn’t used as a business next to a business of car rental or a grocery shop. Hodgepodge and higgelty piggely.

 On our way to Berat, we are going to stop by Cobo winery for a tasting. Before we reach the winery, a wedding parade pulls out in front of us. The lead car has a sun roof and a videographer is standing up in the car facing backwards to film the bridal couple in the next car as they are driving. Looked a bit dangerous to me and I’m not sure how interesting to anyone, even the bride and groom, a video would be of them in the front seat of a car driving down the highway. I’d get tired real fast of smiling and waving at the videographer.

Pulling up to the winery, there are a number of cars parked along the road and a policeman directing traffic and a lot of people walking out of the winery. There was a party there for 300 people just before we arrived and it was at the end of the party now. We wouldn’t have been able to get in otherwise. The party debris was still all over the tables and the wall ledges. There were still a few party goers tasting the last of the wine and eating the wine snacks including a couple of uniformed policemen. Guess they felt they were due some wine after all the hard work tangling up the traffic and parking cars.

 We parked and Klodi chatters with the owner who is still willing to take us on a tour and let us do some wine tasting. Nobody is in a hurry. It takes a few minutes to get the owner away from his other guests as the VIP who threw the party is still taking photos of the owner with him but then we head down the ramp to the vats and wine cellars. They have only been producing since 2000. He is not speaking English so Klodi is translating everything. As usual, there is a lot of chatter that seemingly takes 3 or 4 minutes then a sentence or two translated that takes about 30 seconds. Where are our magical powers that let us understand all languages or our universal translators at least.

We don’t spend a lot of time in the cellars as it is cold out of the sun. We go upstairs to the wine tasting room and get a seat with some glasses. Some plates of snacks come over, some olives, some really tasty bread that his mom made that morning, and some chicken and some cheese. There are sample bottles on the racks where people have ordered a special wine with their own photos on the labels. That would have been cool for our wedding. We are going to taste 3 reds, a white, and then Raki that is made with an infusion of nuts. The red wines are actually fairly tasty but the one that the owner likes the best is the one that we choose not to buy. We end up with a white and two reds and the Raki. Even I liked the Raki with nuts. Ate some of the great bread and would have loved to take it with us. The cheese is also delicious. All the snacks have been made by the owner’s mother this morning, including everything for the earlier party of 300. We have tasted everything and decided what to buy and the owner comes up with a last bottle that is still quite young and is not anything blended. He and my hubby got into a short “discussion” on whether or not to blend this wine. My hubby thought it would taste better if blended but the owner “I Like it Like it IS!” adamantly. And suddenly he could understand English too! Finally we have our 4 bottles for which we paid $48 and we all take a quick toilet break and back in the car to go to Berat.

 As it is winter, the light is going fast. We pass many fruit stands along the way but no one seems to have strawberries. At one of the crossroads, there are also men with turkeys waiting for buyers. We pass several donkey carts and sometimes the carts propelled by the single stroke engine that was so common in Korea. We were supposed to have time to view parts of the castle but as we get to the castle the sun is setting and shadows are darkening and we are insisting on food before anything else. We drive up to the castle/citadel anyway and walk into the grounds.

 There are some 40 families still living inside the citadel walls. One family is working hard on their basement area but they have a restaurant on the first floor and we go in there. It is not a restaurant where they have menus but rather a restaurant where you ask them what they have cooked today and ask for a serving of that. We learned the very first night that grilled vegetables means eggplant and peppers which our daughter doesn’t like so she doesn’t order that anymore. We have started carrying around vegetables with us so we can ask them to boil it for her. Still took a while to get our meal even though it was supposedly already cooked.

 We check into Hotel Mangalemi and the people are very happy to see us and also quite concerned. We walk through the building, out the back to a courtyard and into another building with an unheated hallway to our rooms. Our host tells us that he will bring us a portable heater as it is possible that the heat will go off in the hotel if the outside temperature gets below 0C. We find out with this hotel that most of the hotels do not bother to heat the rooms that are not occupied. It is very cold in our room and we can’t take off our coats yet. We get the portable heater and if we stand directly in front of it, we are a bit warmer.

 I haul out the tripod and my hubbyl and I decide to try and take some photos of the old town parts in the lights. On the side of the river where we are is the old Muslim part of the town. Across the river is the Orthodox side of town. We find a spot to put up the tripod and my fingers are so cold I can hardly work the camera. We move over to the bridge to see the other side of town and take a few photos. It is really too cold to try and take any more photos and we go back to the hotel. Our room has not warmed up much and it appears that the central heating has already gone off. One of us calls for blankets and they bring us more blankets.

 Nobody wants to go out for dinner so we manage to do with what we have which is enough. Our daughter is in her room wrapped up in her blanket with her feet on the heater. We are both wrapped in our blankets and not getting a whole lot warmer. A knock on the door and it is the host with another heater. He said they just went out and bought them and while it is much smaller, it is a much stronger heater. We put the original heater on the floor because the dresser was getting pretty hot underneath it. We keep them both going full bore all night long. Per my thermometer on my alarm clock, it warmed up to 16C but it never got over that. When we finally went to bed, we had all the wool comforters over us and both heaters blasting away. It was not an unpleasant night as long as we didn’t have to get out of the covers

First Day Touring

Day 2 Wednesday December 28, 2011 We have some touring today! Hit the breakfast room on the second floor around 8. It’s a buffet and no one in the room except us and a lady behind the bar and one waiter. He asks for our coffee order and indicates we can go to the buffet. It is pretty much the usual selection these days of almost inedible eggs, some type of mystery meat sausage, some pastries, some cheese, lunch meat, a few vegetables, cereals, and yoghurt. We didn’t ask if we could get any cooked special. Somehow we always forget to ask this. My daughter stopped in and took some hard boiled eggs for later. The yoghurt was quite tasty but everything else was just mediocre. Ready to go and down to the lobby to meet Klodi.

 We are traveling to Kruja today. It was an Ethnographic museum, and Scanderbeg Museum, and an old fortress of Kruja plus a bazaar. It is not too far out of town although we have to go back out towards the airport and through all the traffic jams again to get out of town. We get to Kruja and drive through the town and up the sides of a cliff almost. A good part of the town is perched on the hillside and this seems to be the case with most Albanian towns. We park and exit the car to climb further up the hill to get to the former castle. It has been rebuilt into the Scanderbeg Museum. You can still see the castle walls though and later we looked at the former tower and corner points along the walls.

 We had a separate guide for the Ethnographic Museum. We were the only ones there and from the looks of things, no one else had been in a while. It is not exactly tourist season. There were signs that said no photographs but I asked the guide and he said “why not” and let me take photos. How nice. The museum had tools which were used years ago to plow, flatten ground, blacksmith, make hats, distill, and press olives. I especially liked the olive press and it was like a huge screw on both sides that the men would screw down together onto baskets holding the olives that had already been pressed once for the virgin oil. We went into the house then and saw the traditional rooms and furnishings. It was very Muslim in that the men and women were not ever together except in one room of the house, the family room. The women had a room above the men’s room that was hidden and they could look down on the men and the young ladies could see who was chosen for them for marriage. In the men’s room, no women were ever allowed so a young boy was stationed at the door to bring in the food and water and whatever other supplies the men needed. Some of the furnishings were hundreds of years old and some of the home was hundreds of years old as well but other parts have been restored. The kitchen is always interesting. The old mom and dad (parents of the current land worker) would sleep in here because it was the warmest room in the house. Not a bad idea as we discovered later. In Albania, the youngest son is responsible for staying with the parents and taking care of them and taking over the farm/family business.

 After the Ethnographic Museum, we went back into the courtyard below the former castle/now museum to head into the Scanderbeg Museum. In the courtyard were 3 turkeys and a couple of young boys looking after them. I am really getting into the turkey photos here. Hardly ever get to see a live turkey up close in the states. 

Go into the Scanderbeg Museum and only the very first statues in the entry way are photographed. Then I must put away my camera for the rest of the museum. It is a very nice museum and Klodi did quite a good job of telling us about Scanderbeg who is revered as a national hero who helped free Albania from the Ottoman Turks which is ironic since they trained him to be a soldier. He gathered the scattered local chiefs together and got them to fight together against outsiders. All this happened in the mid 1400’s. He is regarded as many as the savior of Christianity in Europe. If he had not stopped the Ottoman Turks in Albania, they would have pushed through to Rome and the Vatican and there wouldn’t be a Roman Catholic Church anymore. There is a statue to him in Tirana and one in Brussels and other European capitals and you can see his helmet everywhere in symbols or you can buy a similar to wear. It was a goat head with the horns on it. Anyway, a good museum with interesting tales of Scanderbeg and then another part of the museum is dedicated to the Communists. We went through that part rather quickly. We did go out on the balcony and take in the view over the city and the valley and were able to take photos out there.

 Now, we have the option to go through the bazaar. While I love bazaars, this one was quite touristy and almost every store seemed to have the same items and same rather kitsy stuff for sale. We did find some rather warm looking knit socks and went into one store to buy some. According to what we had read, we were supposed to bargain for items and it was expected. The lady came up with something like 10 euros a pair of socks each. My daughter found 2 pairs and I was going to bargain but when I started, she turned to Klodi and he chattered away with her and turned to me and said she would only let them go at 18 Euros rather than 20. Sometimes I have found a guide does more harm than good in bargaining. We found a pair of socks outside for 4 Euros We found some great bowls there too but didn’t get any. My husband looked at a coffee grinder but passed it and then we saw the same coffee grinders just about everywhere. There was a lot of pushing of “brandy” and “cognac” – locally made – and apparently they think tourists must love to buy booze. Most shops were the same as everywhere – “come look” “free to look” “I have many things in my shop”, etc. etc. etc. And we walked to the end of the bazaar and had to walk back through it to get to the car. It was not easy walking either as it was all cobblestones. Finally we are finished and hop back into the car to head back into Tirana.

 We get a drive through different parts of Tirana and Klodi tells us of some of the buildings are we are driving. He points out some very traditional Communist buildings. He always says “communist” and it wasn’t until much later in the trip that I realized their dictator was when they had their communist period and they were never actually part of the Soviet Union. Buildings were all the same and all painted a rather dull gun metal gray during the Communist time. When they started moving away from that, people started putting some color onto their buildings and the general populace was so pleased that it became a law that you had to declare the color of your building when you applied to build and it was put into your permit and building plans. You could still paint a building gray but it had to be in the plans and documents. Some of the buildings went a little overboard with the different colors.

 We stopped for dinner at a small restaurant where we ended up with way too much food as we didn't realize Klodi was ordering a meal for each of us. We got some pies which I didn't like. We had a spinach pie off a street store front before and it was good but this one was some odd cheese and nasty to me. Then we each ended up with a huge plate of chicken and rice. There were two men outside walking up and down the street with a turkey in their hands. When we first saw them, I thought they had bought their turkeys and were going home. But we see them pass the other way later but I couldn't get out to take a photo. Klodi says they are trying to sell the two turkeys. Next time they passed, I ran out into the cold but they were walking much faster than my” jump up and go outside”.

 We told Klodi that it was necessary to stop at a fruit market and get some fruits for my daughter. He took us to a nice one that wasn't that far from the hotel and we purchased some strawberries, some grapes, a cauliflower and some pears I think. The strawberries were quite expensive, being about $10 in price for a small container but they were delicious. We got a couple of persimmons for bonus. Klodi was so tickled by my daughter always needing fruit and fresh vegetables that he took to calling her “Fruity Girl” and it kind of stuck the whole trip and we all enjoyed calling her that. He drove back to the hotel and we walked around the square to the Ethem Bey Mosque. He was thinking we might not get inside but it wasn’t a prayer time so we were able to go into the mosque. As we were walking up to the door, a woman and her daughter, who looked almost grown, asked Klodi something but we went into the mosque in front of them. I thought they were just waiting to get into the mosque. There was a room inside the door where you took off your shoes. Looks like men went downstairs then to do their ablutions. We walked to the next door which let us into the mosque. It was quite small actually. It had all the usual mosque things but wasn’t very elaborate as mosques go. I asked if I could take photos and Klodi say “why not” but I did not use a flash as there were people in there worshiping. We didn’t stay long because it wasn’t large and we hoped to see a few other things.

 On the way out, the same woman and girl talked to Klodi for a while. He told us later that he was surprised because they were begging and he said that white people don’t beg and he was asking them how come and why didn’t she get a job and was really giving her the business for begging and not working. According to him, you can always find a job or help from friends and neighbors. They have a gypsy population and they expect begging from them but not from other white people. He did not give her any money. Interesting take on poor people.

 My daughter was not interested in going to the Shijaku House so she went back to the hotel to work out. We hoped into the van and drove around the city a bit to get to this house which is the home of one of their most famous artists who is now in his 80’s I think but still painting. We drove down a small alley and when we weren’t sure where he was going, he drove between the very narrow stone pillars of a gate into what looked like a bar/restaurant courtyard. We all pop out and walk into the bar where he chatters with some people who run off to look for something. We are in the compound of the artist and his son or his family anyway and the house is next door to the bar. We are told to pay our entry fee of 200 Lek per and walk into this fantastic house that is lined from ceiling to floor, almost, with paintings by Shijaku. He has stuck to the same theme many times and some of the paintings are identical except differently sized. He loves to paint cock fights and scarecrows and there are some of Skanderbeg around the walls as well. Definitely a good painter. The house was just as interesting with a large fireplace and stairs up the back wall on both sides and then a balcony around the second floor with rooms but all the doors were closed. Klodi said the man is still painting as there was an easel and a wet canvas sitting on it with a palette under it. And there were several new paintings that Klodi recognized as being new from his last visit. We could not take any photos though. 

Didn’t get back to the hotel though before we got hit in the rear. Klodi jumps out and goes to look. We saw the next day that there was only a small ding on the fender. The other driver didn’t have insurance and says sorry a lot but Klodi says “what are you going to do” apparently he has had as many as 30 dings in a couple of months to be repaired. Last time, he had just gotten it out of the shop when someone hit him again.

 Back at the hotel and we agree on the time to leave and we go to our room on floor 8. There is a party happening on floor 2 where the restaurant is. We had seen rather large speakers in there earlier. Finally around 10 or so, my daughter calls our room and complains about the noise and can we hear it. The party has started and is in full swing and you can even feel the bass jumping the room around. She calls the front desk and they are most apologetic and say we can move to a new room for the night and keep the room we have as well so we don’t have to move all of our stuff. They come up with keys and show us each a room across the hall which isn’t really much better. Standing in the hall, you can feel/hear the music coming up the stairwell. They had told my daughter when she first called that they had rooms on the 12th floor so we wanted to see them as well. Those were better. We could hear/feel the music but not nearly as much so we asked for those two rooms. We were able to get some sleep that way and didn’t get drummed/bass-thumped so badly to lose sleep. Sometimes it is helpful to be the only ones in the hotel. A nice first day of touring and seeing some cool stuff and learning about the history of some of their heroes and founding fathers.

Arrival in Tirana

Day 1 Tuesday Dec 27, 2011 An early start even though our flight wasn’t until 9:20 a.m. There wasn’t a choice in flights because British Airways only does one flight a day to Tirana. I suppose we could have gone with one of the local Balkan airlines but I feel better with BA so this is the flight we had to take and it left out of Gatwick which is a bit further from us. I booked Marathon Taxi to pick us up. I like their ads, “We may cost a bit more, but we show up on time.” So far, we have used them 3 times so we are comfortable with them too. He also recommended an hour to get to Gatwick so he would pick us up at 6:25. My daughter thought that our flight was 6:25 and we would be leaving at 3 in the morning or some such time. She has reason to believe that as I am sometimes known for getting the cheaper flight or red eye to save money. Ha, this time, I talked my husband into going with business class seats as they weren’t that more expensive. Good thing I did. We get through security quickly. I stop into the duty free shop to moisturize my face and hands with the most expensive product with samples. My SOP for travel. Then we go to the lounge. There are some breakfast foods. British Airways actually had one of the nicest assortments of choices for breakfast that I have seen in a business lounge in quite a while. Most of them are cutting back so much that bringing your own food has almost become necessary. There were a number of children in the business class lounge. For some reason, this dismays me no end. I just can’t imagine how all these families with 2-5 kids can afford the business class tickets and it also seems like most of the kids don’t have a lot of discipline and control so there’s always a lot of shouting and shrieking which hurts my ears. Luckily there was a play room so guess people flying business class with kids is here to stay. When I had a child that age, I was lucky to be able to afford to go across town! Our entertainment was to watch the planes land at IAH and play tag in the train tunnel. When we boarded, there were a great many children flying, from the ages of infants to pre-teens. Way too many. Another reason not to fly on a holiday like Christmas and New Year’s as families are traveling home to visit. A lot of Albanian families on board and that included some children in business class. I am so glad we had the business class because we were a number of rows away from the crying children and screaming children in economy.

 Landing in Tirana, we taxied to the gate and then took a bus the 200 yards to the door. Since we were business class, we got a bus to ourselves. So we were first in line for immigration. My daughter’s immigration office was busy on the phone and doing personal things so it took her longer to get through but she got a stamp. I was doing my usual trying to be friendly and my officer was faster but she didn’t give me a stamp and the window was too high for me to determine that until after I had gotten through so I didn’t ask for it. Poo. Luggage was coming out and even though our bags were marked Priority, they were mixed in with everyone else’s and took a long time to get our bags, about half of the flight was already gone by the time the last bag came.

 Walking out, we found our guide immediately. He had a sign with Adventures Abroad on it. This was Klodi who would be our guide and driver for the entire trip. He waited while my daughter and I hit the toilets and said we could find an ATM just about anywhere in the city so that shouldn’t be a problem. Loaded up the bags and determined that my daughter should get the front seat because she is the most prone to car sickness. My husband was sure he’d be fine plus he never gets the front seat because he just falls asleep. We have a big van for the trip which is good and another reason why Adventures Abroad was chosen because one of the other companies was just going to put us into a car so all three of us would have been sitting in the back seat. This van was a Mercedes Benz and quite a nice vehicle.

 Took us a bit of time to get into the center of Tirana. Lots of traffic and looks to be a city that always has lots of traffic. Tirana was one of the few cities that actually had traffic lights. Everywhere else is just a go if you can, squeeze into the line, block the intersection, etc. etc. Not really any traffic lanes and the police just seem to make matters worse as they have a paddle with a stop sign on it and use it to their own whims. Many times in Tirana, the police would stop one lane of cars to let another lane join into it and never paid attention to the traffic lights so cars would be moving into the intersection from all directions. Everyone eventually gets where they want but it takes a bit of time. Klodi does not talk a lot when driving and as the traffic was so bad, we didn’t ask him a lot of questions while driving either. So there were a lot of long silent drives but as there is always a lot to see, I really didn’t mind it too much and usually got in a few questions of things going by outside. Could have used a lot more information though, I thought.

 As we get to the center of town, he is pointing out some of the main buildings. We also see a Christmas market which I recognized as such having just been to two in Europe. We didn’t get to go until we came back to Tirana though. We get to our hotel which is right on the main square of Tirana, Tirana International Hotel, supposedly 4 stars. Klodi drops us off and asks us what time we want dinner. This is when we find out that lunch time to Albanians is around 2-4 p.m. and dinner around 10 p.m. They eat their big meal at lunch and have a light dinner before they go to bed. Much too late for us so we request 7 or 7:30 for most of our dinners throughout the trip. Dropping us at the main door of the hotel seems to be SOP unless it was a city where he was staying in the same hotel. So we stagger in with our backpacks (I’m staggering) and I pull out my voucher for the hotel but they give it back. They are more interested in having our passports which they want to keep for security for the mini bar. We convince them that we will return from our rooms shortly and pay 20Euros per room and get back our passports. It was only the 4 and 5 star hotels that ever wanted our passports. At first, we thought it was like old Europe where you had to turn in a passport and register with the police but it was just policy to avoid someone stealing their mini bar supplies. We are on the 8th floor with rooms next to each other and overlooking the main square. We can hear a lot of noise coming in from the square and also we are fairly sure we will hear the call to prayer from the mosque. There is a small amusement park on the right side from us. The rides generate quite a bit of yelling and screaming and laughter.

 We suspect that we are the only guests in the hotel as well. We discover at breakfast that there are maybe 2 other rooms taken. We decide to go out and find an ATM. We have calculated what we think we will need for the meals that are not included and calculate it to be about $234 so we’ll get 25,000 lek which is going at the rate of apx 104 lek to $1. The staff returns our passports to us. They direct us around the corner to the bank street. Being the capital city there are many banks on almost all the streets it seems so we have no problem finding an ATM. We took one bottle of water from the mini bar and then thought to ask them if the water was safe to drink. It is but we got that from Klodi because the hotel wasn’t sure what we meant. We head out and it’s pretty cold. I had taken the lining out of my coat and that was a definite mistake. We’re looking for fresh fruit, an ATM, and diet drinks. On this short trip, we didn’t find but a place with tired looking oranges, found many ATM’s and they don’t have anything other than coke zero for diet drinks. As Klodi puts it later, “we don’t need it”. As their tourism industry builds up, they will find they do need it for business! Back to the hotel with money. We stop for a triangle shaped “pie” with spinach in the middle. Kind of like a puff pastry. It was good. There were several tiny storefronts selling food of this kind. Got an ice cream too that was very Italian gelato type which makes sense since they are very close to Italy. Back to the hotel for some reading, relaxing, and trying to get on line until time for Klodi to fetch us for dinner.

 He is prompt but don’t remember now if we asked for 7 or 7:30. He drives a short distance and up a small street into a parking lot for Juvenila Castelo, the restaurant which he says is “traditional restaurant”. There are some people in there for dinner already in spite of his telling us dinner is 10:00 p.m. for Albanians. We also find out immediately that there are no “nonsmoking” restaurants or bars. People light up and puff away wherever they are. They do this even in some places where there are “no smoking” signs and usually standing right underneath the sign. We also find out tonight that it could be a problem for my daughter to find good food like she eats. They usually have broccoli or cauliflower but not always and when you ordered grilled vegetables, that means eggplant and zucchinis that are grilled with olive oil and then slathered with cheese. My daughter had the grilled veggies and lamb. I got some traditional meatballs which were just big meatballs in a tomato sauce. My husband had the veal here. Klodi shared that the veal is just young cow and not force fed like lots in the states used to be (however later we ran into some actually killing of cows and was a bit gruesome). My husband thought it was tasty but tough as they cut the meat the wrong way so wasn’t tender like it could have been. The food was fairly good except for the vegetable snafu.

 I start learning how to say thank you in Albania which is Faleminderit (e’s pronounced like short ‘a’ and accent on second and fourth syllables and all letters pronounced including the last t). Wasn’t until I had him write it in my book that I got good at it. We learned tonight that Albanian is a unique language, according to Klodi, which means that there aren’t any others like it. But it was an oral language until 1906 or so. As we discovered during the trip, the three of us speak “modern” and “technical” meaning words that are computer related, technical related, auto related, etc. are easily understood by us because they are close to English. When we later tried to describe this to Klodi he because quite defensive of his language so we let it pass. There is a sort of fitness gym there. My daughter and I had gone down to see it. It’s not much but it will help with her workout since she has the Houston Marathon shortly after she returns home. It was also decided that if she wants to turn on the lights herself, she can go down at any time. She’ll do that tomorrow and then meet us for breakfast and then we’ll head out for our first day of touring. Always nice to be in a new country and look forward to seeing things, learning a bit of the culture, meeting people.